This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
The present invention relates to an adaptive gas generator for inflating an airbag generally mounted on a vehicle.
It is now very well known to provide motor vehicles with one or more inflatable airbags to provide protection to the occupants, and also in some arrangements to pedestrians, in the event of an accident involving the motor vehicle. Typically, such airbags are formed from flexible fabric, although some arrangements use other flexible sheet material such as plastics material. Airbags can take various forms such as, for example; so-called driver airbags which typically inflate from within the hub of the motor vehicle's steering wheel to provide protection to the driver of the vehicle in the event of a frontal impact; inflatable curtains arranged to deploy downwardly inside the windows of the motor vehicle to protect occupants in the event of side impacts or rollover accidents; and side airbags arranged to deploy between an occupant of the vehicle and a side panel of the vehicle in order to protect the occupant in the event of a side impact. Of course many other types of airbags are also known, and the present invention is not limited to any particular type of airbag.
Modern motor vehicles are now often designed with very little available space for the mounting of packaged airbags. This can be for a variety of reasons such as aesthetic considerations and for reasons of comfort and convenience to occupants of the vehicle. It is therefore becoming increasingly important to produce very tightly packaged airbags which, in their un-deployed rolled and/or folded configuration, take up very little space within the vehicle, thereby permitting more convenient and imaginative designs of interior trim or seats (for example in the case of side airbags which typically deploy from inside the structure or upholstery of a vehicle seat).
It is also considered convenient to provide such packaged airbags in the form of pre-formed modules or units which can then easily be installed in the motor vehicle during assembly on the production line. Typically, airbag units of this type comprise a hard plastic cover provided around the airbag in order to retain the airbag in its tightly packaged condition and to facilitate convenient and reliable installation of the unit in a motor vehicle. However, such covers add significantly to the cost and weight of the airbag unit, and also add extra bulk to the packaged airbag which makes it difficult to produce airbag units of sufficiently small size for installation in modern vehicles without compromising the interior design aesthetics of the vehicle.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved airbag unit for a motor vehicle safety device. It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved method of packaging an airbag for a motor vehicle safety device.